Everything Marc Gasol

[DanH]

Problem is Masai/Raptors may only want him for one year.. so if he opts out we could just lose him anyway. Winning another ring is definitely an incentive to a vet.. but so is playing for another 3 years. And if he gets hurt next year he may not get another contract. I mean he might want to just keep playing like Pau is as well. And Pau's played for some bad teams after his LA glory years.

If he opts out and we don't retain him we move Serge back to starting C, and get a backup big for the MLE I suppose.. or try to trade Norm for a decent center. Still makes us ultimately worse than this past season though IMO.

Might end up wanting Gasol and Lowry on the books for 2020-21, depending on what Kawhi wants when he re-signs: does he want to be sure the veteran core is kept together, and if he's signing a 2+1 deal, he'd want them together for two years, not 1; or does he want the team to have that flexibility in summer 2020?

Summer 2021 certainly has more star power in it, if they are looking for a third star to add to Siakam and Kawhi at that point.

Really hard to predict exactly what term the Raptors want guys on until we know how long Kawhi is staying for (he stay), and what he wants the team to look like around him.

[G__Deane]

Marc has to decide if he's going to opt in or out before Kawhi makes his decision. Pelicans are interested in him giving him some incentive to opt out and get a long term deal done to finish his career.

Gasol got his chip.. does he want another? Thursday will be an interesting day. If we keep Kawhi and lose Gasol, we're going to need to shop for a starting caliber big with little to no cap space. Hope he opts in.

I'm the first to admit I don't understand all the cap ramifications.
If Marc opts out why can't we sign another $20M player to replace him?

[Rudy Bargnani]

I'm the first to admit I don't understand all the cap ramifications.
If Marc opts out why can't we sign another $20M player to replace him?

Even if he opts out we are over the cap of $109 mill. We’re allowed to be over the cap if it’s to keep Our existing players via their bird rights. But not to sign new players. It’s like golden state can’t replace durant if he walks, they will be capped out anyway

[golden]

Even if he opts out we are over the cap of $109 mill. We’re allowed to be over the cap if it’s to keep Our existing players via their bird rights. But not to sign new players. It’s like golden state can’t replace durant if he walks, they will be capped out anyway

What about sign & trades?

[DanH]

What about sign & trades?

If Kawhi stays, we'll be far enough over the tax that sign and trades will initiate a hard cap. With Gasol gone, we might be able to stay under the hard cap. If we re-sign Green though, it starts to get close to the apron pretty quickly. There is a little wiggle room but not much. Then there's the trick of actually getting a sign and trade to work, which is tough in general (team losing the players has to be willing to forego the cap space that would naturally come along with losing that player).

[Bendit]

A bit facetious... sign his bro Pau... much cheaper though older.. similar skills... and nice story. I believe he is a ufa this year (Bucks).

[GOLDBLUM]

A bit facetious... sign his bro Pau... much cheaper though older.. similar skills... and nice story. I believe he is a ufa this year (Bucks).

Yeah, Pau's just absolutely nowhere near as effective as Marc remains at this point in his career. I'd say Marc has at least one more season in him akin to what we saw this year... Pau is just coasting at this point.

[bertarapsfan]

pau will probably retire this off-season. and I don't think he can really contribute anything anymore besides be a locker room vet presence

[G__Deane]

A bit facetious... sign his bro Pau... much cheaper though older.. similar skills... and nice story. I believe he is a ufa this year (Bucks).

So Kawi and KaPau?

[GOLDBLUM]

I really imagined Marc would be a bit of a second thought in the coming days as far as Kawhi's decision and the direction his choice would take us. Now that we know Marc has to opt-in or not by June 27, that makes things very interesting.

If he gets the impression that someone (like the Pels) are willing to give him a longer term deal (tampering??) Does he want to weigh that for himself and take that while he can get it?

Sometimes the NBA gets kind of fucked up this way, all sports for that matter. If I were him, would I feel better about getting nicely paid this year on his current contract and if he needs to rework another deal the year after, and his body feels good to go, do it at that point VS. players getting high annual contracts into their late years, at which time, they may be physically done or injured and collecting a free contract, hamstringing their franchise and in turn their teammates. I get you wanna get paid while you can and contracts allow for that... but seems a bit in bad faith to me. In Marc's situation (I'm as biased as they come of course) but I'd much more respect another year push and then if he wants to move on and get more years after, take them if he's still worth them. (And I get that if some team like the tampering Pels are willing to offer him a 3 or 4 year deal or some shit and face that potentially roster damaging loss in years 3/4 then that's their prerogative.)

I mean, it's hard to imagine Marc willingly walking away after being the MVP of the Championship Parade. If anybody was living their absolute best life... It was him. Hard to imagine he wouldn't want more of that?

Ultimately though, for Marc, it clearly all hinges on whether Kawhi comes back. And as we can't know about that until at least the 30th, that throws things very much up in the air. If he opts out, how much could that jeopardize our chances with Kahwi?

Perhaps Marc would just opt in -- putting the 'opt' in 'optimism' that Kawhi resigns. That said, it'd be really nice if he could get some tip off from Kawhi, if Kawhi thinks he's returning and is interested in what the big man can bring for a possible title defense. These guys live for defense.

If Kawhi tells no one else on the planet of his intentions other than Marc before free agency hits, I'd be good with that.

Bring Back the Band.

[octothorp]

I wonder what it would take to get Marc to opt out and resign on longer term, lower rate? Two years at 20? Three years at 16? The Raptors could pitch him on a scenario where he opts out with two potential agreements in place from the Raptors: a longer-term, lower-rate scenario if Kawhi resigns, or a one-year matching his 'opt-in' contract if Kawhi leaves (and in the latter case, he's encouraged to explore options with other teams for a longer-term deal if he likes, but will have the one-year as a fall-back if nothing pans out). The flexibility from that sort of agreement could be favorable for both Gasol and the Raptors.

[KeonClark]

I wonder what it would take to get Marc to opt out and resign on longer term, lower rate? Two years at 20? Three years at 16? The Raptors could pitch him on a scenario where he opts out with two potential agreements in place from the Raptors: a longer-term, lower-rate scenario if Kawhi resigns, or a one-year matching his 'opt-in' contract if Kawhi leaves (and in the latter case, he's encouraged to explore options with other teams for a longer-term deal if he likes, but will have the one-year as a fall-back if nothing pans out). The flexibility from that sort of agreement could be favorable for both Gasol and the Raptors.

That's a very interesting scenario. 3 years at 16 guarantees him at least another 50 million before he hangs em up, and singlehandedly alleviates the tax bill huge without giving up any assets

I'm comfortable paying a 38 year old end of bench gasol 16 million if it means shaving 10 min this upcoming year and keeping Serge

[DanH]

That's a very interesting scenario. 3 years at 16 guarantees him at least another 50 million before he hangs em up, and singlehandedly alleviates the tax bill huge without giving up any assets

I'm comfortable paying a 38 year old end of bench gasol 16 million if it means shaving 10 min this upcoming year and keeping Serge

I think the Raptors do whatever they can to avoid it becoming 3 years. Even if they bump off the 2020 free agency option, they'll want to be players in 2021, and every penny counts that summer. If Gasol opts out, they probably try their darnedest to make it a 2 year 40M deal rather than 3/45.

I think if they are forced into planning for 2021 instead of 2020, we might see a flurry of activity this summer. Could see Gasol getting that 2 year deal if he opts out, or getting an extension to add the extra year if he opts in, and could see extensions for Lowry and maybe even Serge too, if they'd take discounted rates like Gasol likely would - say, add a 25M year for Lowry and a 15M year for Serge. And we'd probably see an extension negotiated for Pascal ASAP instead of waiting on free agency to take advantage of his low 2020 cap hold, hoping to get a discount on his max by signing him early.

But all of that depends on Kawhi signing a 2+1. If he signs a 1+1 (or bolts, obviously), can't see them locking up veterans for longer.

[LJ2]

Marc's just got such an interesting mesh of skills that it makes him really difficult to replace with one player. He defends at a high level without athleticism, but also hits 3's AND is key to moving the ball from that point-centre position.

[KeonClark]

Marc's just got such an interesting mesh of skills that it makes him really difficult to replace with one player. He defends at a high level without athleticism, but also hits 3's AND is key to moving the ball from that point-centre position.

Hes also very clearly in sharp decline. One day we'll blink and he can longer defend the pick n roll at the 3 pt line anymore